Introducing.......

One week old!

First day home!

1 week old.



5 minutes old.


I love all of her hair! I hope it stays dark!


I don't think Penelepe could have been more excited. When Penelepe had to go home without her baby sister she cried the entire way home! She was so mad we had to stay 4 days in the hospital!


Penelepe giving loves to her sister before she arrived.


Baby Violette was born 11/25/08 at 9:04 am. Weighing 7bls. 13 oz. and 20 inches long. She is adorable and we love having her in our family. She looks (I think) completely different than her older brother and sister. The first couple days I had to keep telling myself that she was my baby, because I thought for sure she would look like Penelepe and Oliver. She was swollen on one side of her face, which is normal for a breech baby, and she has the cutest biggest double chin a new born can have. The actual delivery was so weird and it wasn't as bad as I had myself stressed out about. Going to the hospital in no pain was very nice, and the actual procedure only had 3 bad moments other than that c-sections are great and fast. As for the recovery - all I have to say is Annoying! But I am thankful for modern medicine and the time period we live in. I've always thought I would have loved to live during the time of the pioneers (why? I have no idea) but honestly I would have been lucky to survive after Oliver's delivery and there is no way I would have made it through my other deliveries and Violette is no exception. Her head was up in my ribs along with her feet and her bum was down. There was no way she could have been born naturally. The nurse said she was the only one in the nursery who could suck her toe, which I thought I'm sure there were others, but she probably was the only one that could put her toes in her mouth without bending her legs. She had to have been so uncomfortable -good thing she is out and free now. Her siblings love her and Penelepe is her second mother who loves to climb all over her.

This is it! Don't get scared now!

The countdown is on. Tuesday the 25th is the day for little baby girl to be born around 8:00 am. And since I think vaginal deliveries are so Old Fashioned I'll be having this girl the easy way a C-Section. Ya since Brittany Spears is awesome and she's having them - then that's how I want to have my babies. I'm cool like that. Really that's a lie. You would think I have learned my lesson of saying "I will Never....." or "My kids will Never.... ". I haven't really ever Said, BUT I have always thought that I would Never have a C-Section - well that's what I get. Little baby girl is breech. And since I have a wonderfully "unique uterus" with a septum or a wall going partially through it, she is stuck - so I Have to have a C-Section. During one of my first doctors appointments the doc asked me if I was going to have a vaginal delivery or C Section. Then he said since Brittany Spears had C-sections a lot more ladies are having them. I just laughed and he did too saying you never know. And I thought I would never have one! Oh well it will be worth it! Good thing I'm not scared.

A little trivia game. Who can tell me what movie my post title is from? Its a classic - right Falon?!

Christmas Songs Already?!!!

I am one of those nerds who could listen to Christmas music year round, so no time is too early for me. For those of you who hate music on blogs (sorry Molly) please ignore this post. But I had to put on my FAVORITE CHRISTMAS song on our playlist. I Celebrate the Day by Relient K. I Love This Song, as Penelepe would say. Again since I'm not computer savvy I don't know how to make this the only song to be playing on our blog during the Christmas season, so for those of you who have a spare 3 minutes and 5 secs or so to listen to it, please do - its great.

And as the song says the moment Christ was born He changed this world forever.

Fall Days

Is there anything more relaxing then throwing rocks in a river? We dropped Ryan off at school for a couple of hours one day and spent the afternoon at the park about a block away from Buff State. It was a beautiful fall afternoon - too bad Penelepe wasn't feeling so great. I love the picture of Oliver and Penelepe by the tree - sometimes they are so alike!

For my birthday this year Oliver's school decided to have a surprise birthday for me - wasn't that so great of them! Really it was the Fall Festival (or Fall Fundraiser) and we heard that it was suppose to be so fun with lots of activities for the kids. I thought it would be a great family outing for my birthday. Ya - I was wrong. It was LAME. Good ol Fort Shaw Elementary in Montana had way better activities! There wasn't even a cake walk or fish pond! They had a dance and that was about it. Kind of weird - kind of funny. Elementary kids having a dance? But the kids had fun anyways. Oliver sort of danced with the kids, Enzo went right in the middle of the dance floor and watched everyone, and Penelepe wanted so badly to dance, but was too scared to get close to anyone. She just danced in the back all by herself - oh she is cute! Rozannah made my birthday cake for me- isn't it cute!

Oliver had alot of fun at his primary activity the other week, but what boy wouldn't have fun kicking a pumpkin around (all these photos were suppose to be an October post - but I haven't had time to put them up - so better late than never).

Halloween

I believe I am the equivialent of BA-Humbug for Halloween. It is by far my least favorite holiday. My dislike for Halloween stems from my Dad I'm sure, as he says its a pagonistic holiday and it shouldn't be celebrated. Since I've had children my tolerance has grown for Halloween. I do like the dressing up and I love sugar, I just can't stand the gory blood and ghosts and the annoying little brats who stick out their bags and grunt. They can't even say Trick or Treat - what a lazy people we have become. And a Thank you - unheard of. With that being said we did have a fun Halloween. Our ward had a fun party in the middle of the week, which the kids loved. Rozannah and I did make some cupcakes for the party which turned out really cute and I even dressed up. I was suppose to be the Big Bad Wolf (the one who ate Grandma - since I'm big enough to look like I ate someone) but not too many people got my costume. I guess I wasn't scary enough or had big enough ears or teeth. Oliver wanted to be a dinosaur - but since I refuse to spend too much money on a holiday I don't even like, and I was too tired and lazy to make a dinosaur costume, he decided a Construction Worker was just as good. Penelepe was a cute little Butterfly, and cousin Enzo was a Mad Scientist.

We went trick-or-treating with our neighbor Stephen and it was cute to watch Penelepe try to keep up with the boys running from house to house. It was a gorgeous night (I was expecting it to snow and be super cold and I was ready to tell my kids to go to the end of the driveway and knock on our door - just as I did a couple of really snowy cold Halloweens growing up in Montana), but it was a perfect night to be out so I couldn't complain. One of the last houses we stopped at was an over the top decorated haunted house. It was covered in spider webs, ghosts and goblins, people with out heads, spiders, graves, a fog machine - you name it they had it. Why anyone would spend so much money on a silly holiday just to decorate their house is beyond me (but if it was decorated for Christmas that would be a completely different story). Anyways a scary goblin came out from the shadows with a weed whacker to scare us all. Way to go Dude you scared a 2 year old in a butterfly costume and tu-tu.

I LOVE This Song

Since being married I have hardly listened to any country music, with a few exceptions. One being my favorite Christmas CD ever that I HAVE to listen to every Christmas (with the exception of my mission). Its by Garth Brooks and I got it for Christmas in 1991, my first CD ever (that CD is older than three of my siblings). Other than that I rarely ever listen to country music, once you stop listening to it and you go back to it - it just sounds so depressing. Just my personal opinion and I'm sure I'm offending lots of people - sorry. Ryan can't stand country music, except for maybe a couple songs, so we just never listen to it.
So the other day (really other week - time goes by way too fast) we were driving somewhere flipping through the radio channels when a country song came on and Penelepe yelled in her most excited sweet voice, "I LOVE THIS SONG!" Both Ryan and Oliver groaned "oh no". Since then its been a battle over what song to listen to, with Oliver and Penelepe saying "you Always get to listen to what You want".

FAST Sunday

I reminded Ryan that tomorrow is Fast Sunday and Oliver overheard me. Before he went to bed he asked what time we were getting out of church tomorrow. I told him the usual time and he said "WHAT - you said it was FAST Sunday!" He sure felt cheated - I guess your suppose to get out of church Fast on Fast Sundays. Duh!

Who wants to go to the Library?

We are so lucky to have the library so close to us. It is only a couple blocks a way and we go weekly to get new books and videos. Since moving to Buffalo we have had no TV and its been great. We only watch our "shows" from the Library now. I do miss TV every once in awhile - like HGTV and Food Network , well and a lot of others - so its been good for our family to have it completely removed from us. Anyways its hard for me as a mother to let my children choose their own books and movies. I don't have to censor anything yet - but there are those books that I just can't stand. For example - The Bernstain Bears- they are so boring!!!! but my kids like them. Usually I will try to talk them out of it and find something else, but I usually let them chose the books so they can't blame me for a boring book.
So this week Oliver brought me his selections. The first two books he gave me at the same time and I just had to laugh and laugh and laugh. I couldn't stop, who knows maybe because I'm pregnant - but I thought it was so funny. He kept saying "What? What? WHAT?" He is so funny. Only a five year old boy could be interested in both Skateboarding and a Winnie the Pooh book at the same time. Or maybe there are some very sensitive Pooh loving skateboarders out there too. You never know. (Don't you love the hearts on the Pooh Book). I Love Oliver.

I LOVE CONFERENCE

So I just have to say I Love conference! I do love it. And my favorite talk was Elder Wirthlin. He never ceases to amaze me! If I was cool I would have a link to his talk, but I couldn't figure it out. Maybe on Thurs. when the talks are in text and not just audio I'll have a link up. So if you missed conference be sure to listen or read his talk. Anyways he is too funny and I loved his theme - Come what may and Love it! Easier said than done, but so true!
Ok so here is the written article of Elder Wirthlin's talk. I still love it. http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-9,00.html

Brown's Berry Patch

Penelepe will ask "Where's Oliver?" when he is at school. She misses him a little but we do have fun with out him too. Don't tell Oliver. The other week we went to Brown's Berry Patch with a few other friends from our play group. It was so delicious! The raspberries were amazing! If it wasn't a little over an hours drive I would be there everyday! I think we ate about as much as we put in the basket. Quality control - and the raspberries passed the inspection. We also picked several large bags of apples. Over 8 dozen Macintosh apples. Oliver could eat 6 a day if I let him. Needless to say we will not be wasting any of the apples (which I was a little afraid of after I saw how many we picked). Anyways it was a great outing. Penelepe had a lot of fun. They also have a large play area for kids and a ton of scarecrows. I don't think the scarecrows are suppose to be scary, but they were creepy to me.
So speaking of Penelepe - I love her - I do - but sometimes she can be quite the two year old. The other day we were at the park and it was time to go home. She did not think it was time to go and threw a major fit and screamed the entire two blocks home! Needless to say she had a major time out in her room when we finally made it home. After she finally calmed down and I went into her room and sat down on the floor with her to have a serious talk. I asked her why she had to have a time out and she replied in her most sweet high pitched innocent little voice, "Because I was crying, and screaming, and yelling mean things at your belly". Oh I hate it when they are suppose to be in trouble and you need to be serious as a parent and they say something funny. I quickly covered my face and pretended I was crying. I even had tears I was laughing so hard. Anyways I LOVE Penelepe. (and hopefully the "mean things at my belly" are not her true feelings toward her baby sister.)

Joys of Public School - Maybe we should Home School

So Oliver never tells me anything about school. It has been driving me crazy! Unless I really pry I might get some descriptive answer, but he usually says he forgot what he learned and he had fun. Well that's great that he's having fun I guess, I just wonder if he will learn anything. On Friday he came home and his hair was messy in the back (it was probably from riding the hot bus home with his hood on) but I asked him why his hair was so messy. He then told me his class went to see the nurse and the nurse also fixes hair! Hmmm interesting. He continued to say- ya she uses wooden sticks to fix our hair. What? Weird? I couldn't think of why on earth the nurse would be fixing their hair. A few minutes later after reading through his take home folder from the school I found the answer. LICE!!!! A girl in his class has lice. Great he's only been in school a week and a half and now he is going to have LICE! Hopefully not - if he does I will be so mad. Maybe home school would be better. I would know what he is doing all day and he wouldn't get lice. Except for I'm positive I don't have the patience to teach Oliver - he is always correct and I am always wrong about everything. I doubt he would learn anything - so I guess we'll take our chances with lice and keep him in public schools.

My head itches just thinking about it uhhhhh!

One School Day Down 3,401 Days to Go

First Day of School Finally arrived! Oliver has been so excited for this day and has been on the count down. He had to go to bed "early" the night before because it was a "school night" and he asked what a school night was. Our 3rd grade neighbor explained how "boring" school nights were because you HAD to go to bed early so you could get up early and be ready for school. (Thanks Stephen for helping). Oliver didn't mind too much to have to go to bed early last night because I told him the sooner he went to bed the sooner he could get on the bus. He woke up easily enough and was all set to go. Oliver and Cannon, Oliver's new BFF who lives just a couple houses down, are in the same class - Oliver is very excited about that. When he got on the bus there was literally no looking back so he was definitely ready for school. Then when he arrived home from school there was NO - I missed you Mom!, or How are you Mom?, or What did you do today Mom? - the first thing he said was - Can I go across the street and play. Yes I obviously missed him way more than he missed me. When I asked what he learned he said lots of stuff - but he couldn't really remember. He did tell me he knows a lot more about his teacher than he did yesterday. Also that all the boys in his class are his friends and only two of the girls are his friends, he then said he didn't meet the other girls yet. There are I think 15 kids in his class, which is ALL DAY (I still think its too long - but I'm sure when the baby is here I will be loving the All Day school). Tonight as he got ready for bed early (because it was another School Night) he said "Huh why do I have to do this every year!" and I laughed and said do you mean every night and he said "No I have summer vacation" - (da Mom don't you know I have summer vacation) So he loves school, but hates school nights. Oh I love you Oliver

Summer Time and the Living is Easy

Family Portraits

Well we thought it was about time to finally have our family portraits taken. Even though we have a great photographer in the family,Rozannah, (you can check out her great blog at http://ellemenopeephotography.blogspot.com/ the picture of CR and baby Apollo is my favorite I guess when we have our baby girl in December we'll have to give Ryan some tattoos too -I love that picture CR). Anyways since Rozannah couldn't do what we wanted we flew Deb out from Preston, Idaho for our glamour shots. I think they turned out ok.
Really someone in our ward had a TOTALLY AWESOME 80'S NITE and it was a lot of fun. And what totally awesome 80's nite would be complete without GOONIES, POP ROCKS, CARE BEARS, and SLAP BRACELETS. Rozannah was pretty disappointed that no one brought their GARBAGE PAIL KIDS to trade.

Camping with Friends

Friday we went "camping" with a bunch of new friends in our ward. Well actually everyone else did the camping - we just went for the day and left before the scary campfire stories started and came back to sleep in our own soft comfortable beds - with the bathroom only a few feet away. As much as I wanted to stay the night - it sure is nice to have the comforts of home, especially when you have to pee 5 times a night. Anyways we all had fun, even with burnt tin foil dinners (I was so hungry too - good thing I brought the Princles!) Oliver had a lot of fun with his new BFF Cannon and everyone else. Below Penelepe is sitting with Annie and Megan around the campfire. I love camping and with friends it was so fun, the kids were entertained with each other and the "Big Kids" had fun too.

Monster Garage

All I have to say is Ryan is so funny and he loves mechanical projects. So our neighbors across the street placed their old gas powered scooter on the curb (which if anything is on the curb in Buffalo - its free game to anyone). Well Chris saw it on the curb and it ended up in the garage. Chris also found a seriously old school trike on the curb, as well, and got it for Lorenzo which was way too big for him. Somehow the two objects ended up in our Monster Garage and Ryan had to combine the two. He obviously had way too much fun. Good thing a picture is worth a thousand words, because I can't even describe it. All I know is Ryan and Chris have had a lot of fun riding it around. It's street legal you know. (ya right)

I Fought the Law and the Law Won

So we spoke in church on Sunday and I talked a little bit about obedience and how that word has a completely new meaning since becoming a parent. Why must children, excuse me, why must my children not listen. Well this is what happens when kids don't listen - they get hurt! Penelepe knows one of the rules in the house is to not go down to the basement. Why? because its not a finished basement and has things that could hurt children and the stairs are scary. Needless to say she didn't listen and fell down the stairs. Not only did she fall down the stairs, but since there isn't a railing on one side she also fell off the scary wooden stairs and landed first on a saw horse and then on a saw and finally ended on the cement. I honestly thought her eye would be gone when I looked at her. Super scary. Luckily all she got was her first black and bloody eye. Pobrecita!